In this section

West Lexham.

The towns of East and West Lexham had the additional names of
East and West, since the Conquest: being then called Leccesham and
Lechesham, from its site on a bog, or lake by the water.

At the survey it was the lordship of Ralph de Beanfoe, and Ricard
held it of him, but Fader was lord in the reign of the Confessor, when
it consisted of 3 carucates and a half of land, 9 villains, 7 borderers,
3 servi, 6 acres of meadow, 2 carucates in demean, &c. a carucate
and a half amongst the tenants, paunage for 30 swine, a mill, a
fishery, and the fourth part of a salt-pit; one horse, 7 cows, &c. 80
sheep, and 4 bee skeps, and 6 socmen had half a carucate of land and 2
acres of meadow, &c. valued then at 40s. after at 3l. per ann. and a
freeman had 60 acres of land under Herold, with 2 borderers and an
acre and half of meadow, &c. valued then at 5s. after at 4s. the soc
belonged to the King's manor of Mileham. Here was a church endowed with 30 acres, valued at 16d. the whole was one leuca long,
and half a leuca broad, and paid 7½d. gelt. (fn. 1)

Of this Ralph de Beaufoe, see in Swanton-Morley lordship, and of
his descendants.

Ralph de Caineto, or Cheyney, was lord, as was John his son, whose
sister and coheir, Sibil, was married to William Fitz Robert, brother
of John Fitz-Robert, to whom Bishop Eborard, in the reign of
Henry I. granted the lordship of Blickling in Norfolk; which William
left 3 daughters and coheirs; Margaret, the wife first of Hugh de
Cressi, after of Robert Fitz-Roger; Clementia, of Jordan de Sackvile;
and Sarah, of Richard Engaine, who in 1191 gave the King 200 marks
to have possession of his wife's inheritance; but in 1217 Jordan de
Sackvile and Vitalis Engaine, son of Richard, released their rights
herein to Margaret de Cressi, and so it came entirely into that family.

But it is more probable that this manor was not in the Cressies(fn. 2)
till Roger de Cressi, son of Hugh, obtained it on his marriage with
Isabel, daughter and coheir of Hubert de Rie in the 9th of King
John, and died possessed of it in the 30th of Henry III. in right of
his wife; (fn. 3)Ralph de Beaufoe's daughter and heir being married to
Hubert de Rie, castellan of Norwich.

About the end of Henry III. A. 52, that King is said to have
granted to William de Valentia and Joan his wife, and their heirs, the
manor of West Lexham, Filby, Posswyk, &c. in Norfolk, which came
to him as an eschaet; and in the 3d of Edward I. the said William
de Valentia Earl of Pembroke claimed the assise, free warren, &c. in
this lordship: he was son of Hugh de Brun Earl of March in France,
by Isabel his wife, widow of John King of England, sole daughter to
the Earl of Angolesme, and took his name from the place of his nativity, and being brother by his mother to King Henry III. was sent
for into England, together with Guy de Lezinian, his elder brother,
and had a grant of many lordships, and through the influence of King
Henry married Joan, daughter of William, and sister and heir to her
brother William de Monchensi, great barons of this realm, by whom
he had 3 sons, but was succeeded in his honour and inheritance by
the youngest, Aymer, or Adomare de Valentia Earl of Pembroke, who
held this town in capite by the service of 3 carrats of gold (unam
obolum aurj) per ann. (fn. 4) He attended Queen Isabel of England into
France, and was on June 23, 1323, murthered there, as appears by the
eschaet rolls, and dying without issue, this lordship was delivered, in
the 19th of Edward III. to David de Strabolgi Earl of Athol, son of
John de Strabolgi Earl of Athol in Scotland, (executed as a trailor in
the 34th of Edward I.) David the son being restored in blood, and a
great favourite in the reign Edward II. and having married Joan,
daughter of John Comyn, (by Joan, his wife, one of the sisters and
coheirs of Adomare, aforesaid, Earl of Pembroke,) and sister and coheir
of John Comyn, Lord of Badenagh in Tindale.

In this family it continued till the death of David de Strabolgi Earl
of Athol, on October 10, in the 49th of Edward III. who had been
summoned to parliament as a baron in the 39th, 42d, &c. of that
King, and served in the wars of France, leaving by Elizabeth his wife,
daughter of Henry Lord Ferrers of Groby, two daughters and coheirs,
Elizabeth and Philippa.

Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, married Sir Thomas Percy: the said
Sir Thomas had livery in the 1st of Richard II. of that purparty of
inheritance which came to her from the Earl of Pembroke. This
Elizabeth in an old writing is called widow of Sir Thomas Percy, junior,
in the 12th of Rich. II. and then granted to Sir John de Halsham and
Philippa his wife, (her sister and coheir,) her right herein: it is said
that she proved her age in the 5th of Edward III. and in the next
year married Sir Thomas Percie, and remarried John Le Scroop, and
was his wife in the 15th of Richard II.

Philippa, the youngest sister and coheir, is said by Dugdale to marry
Sir Ralph Percy, brother to Sir Thomas, younger sons of the Earl of
Northumberland, and after Sir John Halsham, by whom she had John
Halsham, who was found to be their heir to this lordship in the 19th
of Richard II. and appears to be lord in the 3d of Henry V.

Sir Hugh de Halsham died seized of it in the 20th of Henry VI.
Petronilla, his 2d wife, surviving, leaving Joan, (daughter and heir of
Rich. Halsham, his brother, and wife of John Lewkenore, Esq.) his
heir; and it was settled by John Lewkenore of Sussex, by fine, on Thomas Randolf, with the manors of Filby, Posswick, and Stiveky.

Soon after this it came to the Boleyns of Blickling, and Sir William
Boleyn died possessed of it in 1505.

King Edward VI. in his 2d year granted license to Sir James Boleyn, to alien it to John Calibut, Esq. and his heirs, with a fold course
in this town, East Lexham, Dunham Magna, Newton, and Castleacre;
and by an inquisition taken at Castleacre, April 17, in the 7th of
Elizabeth, Bridget Calybut, widow of John Calybut, Esq. was found
to die seized of it February 20, last, and John was her son and heir,
aged 30; and by another inquisition taken at Swaffham, June 16, in
the 12th of Elizabeth, John Calybut, Esq. was found to die at Upton
in Northamptonshire, October 23, past, lord of this manor, (fn. 5) and left
four daughters and coheirs, Margaret, Anne, Susan, and Elizabeth,
which Elizabeth, with her husband Bernard Wilfeld, had license to
alien her part in the 15th of the said Queen, to Robert Cuddon, and
in the 18th of the said reign, Philip Audley and Margaret his wife,
another of the daughters, had license to alien it to Arthur Downing
and Susan his wife, another of the coheirs.

In the 2d of James I. Sir Edward Coke was lord of the whole.

John Coke, Esq. possessed it in 1659, and his descendant, the Right
Honourable the Earl of Leicester, died lord in 1759.

The tenths were 1l. 14s.—Deduct 8s. 8d.

The Earl Warren's manor of East Lexham extended into this town,
of which see there.

Roger, who was dapifer to the Earl Warren, and lord, gave to the
monks of Castleacre, for the health of Odo his brother, and William
his father, one mark per ann. rent out of his mill at Lexham, situate
on the west side of the town, witnesses, Henry de Rye, Ralph and
Baldwin de Frevill. (fn. 6)

Richard de Sancto Claro, or St. Cleer, gave the said monks his
right in the church in free alms for ever, for the health of his own and
wife's soul, his heirs and ancestors, with all the liberties thereto belonging; witnesses, Ketel the dean, Aluric the priest. Umfrey de
Dunham, Robert Tusard, &c.

The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and was given to the priory
of Petreston.

Simon Bishop of Norwich granted (or appropriated) to the said
priory (to relieve their poor estate) the church of West Lexham of
their patronage, after the death of Benedict (Anglici) English, to be
possessed to their own use, except the vicarage; the prior to have all
the tithe of garbs, with a moiety of the land and messuage belonging
to the church, dated at Crec (Creek by Burnham) 4 of the ides of
August in the 2d year of his pontificate, 1259; (fn. 7) and in 1265, the said
Bishop confirmed to the priory of Castleacre the tithes of the land
called Kalveswide of the demean of William, son of Richard de Lechesham; also two parts of the tithe of the demean, formerly Roger
de Cressi's, in this town.

And an agreement was made between John, the prior of Castleacre,
and his convent, and Roger, the prior, and convent of Petreston;
that whereas the monks of Castleacre had let to farm to the monks of
Petreston, and their successours, two parts of all the tithes of the demeans formerly Roger de Cressi's and William de Lexham's and all
the land called Rabnelwood, belonging to the monastery of Castleacre,
lying in West Lexham, for 40s. per ann. to be paid to the monks of
Castlcacre for the use of the sacrist, at two terms; and on default of
payment, the monks of Petreston were liable to be excommunicated
by the Bishop of Norwich; for the payment of the said 40s. they tied
all their lands and tenements in Rucham, to be seized, and their goods
distrained by the Earl Warren's bailiffs, or the bailiff of the sheriff of
Norfolk for the time being; in witness whereof two instruments were
made, one to be kept by the monks of Castleacre, sealed with the seal
of the priory of Petreston, and another by the monks of Petreston,
sealed with the seal of the monks of Castleacre; dated at Castleacre
on Saturday the feast of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
1299.